What we learned growing turkeys for the first time.
We liked growing them!
Check out my video showing what they looked like the day before we took them to get butchered!
They were so laid back and chill compared to the broiler chickens we were also growing this summer.
I was a little worried when we got them. I had heard at one time they were a little harder to raise. That wasn’t the case for these ones. They were so easy and enjoyable to raise.
We got 6 when we got the broiler chicks at the end of April. We ended up losing one to a predator when they got moved outside.
We had them in the same movable pen as the chicks until the beginning of July. By that point they were getting to tall and needed more head room. Bo switched them with our new layer poults, putting the turkeys in a dog pen.
Last year we got the dog pen for our broilers, that way we could have them outside and move them to fresh grass while they were growing.
That pen worked great for the 5 turkeys!
We tried to move them every couple of days that way they had fresh grass not only to pick at but also to rest in.
Out of the 5 we had 2 Toms and 3 Hens. They gave us a total of 74 pounds of meat!!
We decided to leave one whole for Thanksgiving and had the others cut up into pieces. It was an additional charge however, it wasn’t much more.
I am hoping to can some of the meat and Bo has already said he would like to smoke a breast to see how it turns out.
All in all , very happy with the process and will definitely be raising turkeys again.
Next year we are hoping to get some hertiage breeds vs the white we had this year.
Before we end this post here is a few pros and cons about raising turkeys!
Pros
1) They don’t stink like broiler chickens. Those birds stink!
2) They have fun personalities. When we would get close to the pen or open it up to feed and water they would walk sweetly over to us and start to yelp. I believe that was my favorite part, I could stand and listen to them for a long time without getting tired of the sounds.
Cons
1) They eat a lot. But that makes since, bigger bird =more food.
2) They cost more to raise and have butchered. The chickens were $1.95 plus $0.10 a pound. To have them cut up it was an additional $1.00. The turkeys were $8.00 up to 16 pounds. If they weighed more than that it cost an additional $0.50 a pound. To have them cut up was a extra $2.00 charge. For our 5 turkeys to be butchered cost $48.00 plus a little more because I wanted the feet and they charge a fee for bags. I’m not sure what we have in feed cost because we were raising broilers and new layer poults. We had our butchering done at Lehman Poultry in Leetonia, Ohio.
One thing I would like to add is that we mostly fed chick starter for broilers and turkeys because of the higher protein levels vs using a broiler mix. It worked well for us, and we will continue using in the future.
Blackhead
My father in law talked about this. Luckily we didn’t have any problems. Here is some info I found on it.
One of the most common questions I get is: Can you raise turkeys with chickens? The answer is yes and no. We’ve always had good luck keeping our adult turkeys with our chickens, but in some areas of the country there is a disease called blackhead that your chicken flock can carry without any outward symptoms. Your chickens can give this to young turkeys and the turkeys will die from it. Contact your local extension to see if blackhead is in your area before you set up a mixed flock.
https://www.mannapro.com/homestead/pros-cons-and-facts-about-raising-turkeys
Hope this encourages you to grow some turkeys. They were a wonderful addition to our lives this summer!
Until Next Time,
Julie